


my brother

by deargalileo



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Found Family, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Team as Family, They ARE brothers, and kill you, if you try to make this a ship fic i will physically manifest in your home, this is not a ship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16619228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deargalileo/pseuds/deargalileo
Summary: See you bitches next yearxoxo, Taakoinspired by and wrote tohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGk1KOs4wsA





	my brother

**Author's Note:**

> not my best work, but a short little EXTREMELY OOC ficlet because i love my boys and i had a weird burst of inspiration after not writing for a while. i got something big in the works y'all, i promise i didn't just vanish. if you like taz (specifically taako) and better writing than this, stay tuned. its coming. soon. ish. 
> 
> not beta read, i'll fix it in the morning when there is actually light and my eyes don't hurt to keep open. thats a sign of good work happening, right? 
> 
> warnings for a lot of talk about suicide and suicide attempts. and cursing.

Magnus had been roused from his room by the noise of clattering in the kitchen- there hadn’t been much of that this year. Lup had died early on, and Taako avoided the room like the plague. He had been avoiding  _ all  _ of them like they had the plague. Or maybe he had the plague. Magnus filed this away as a question to ask Taako when he had the chance. The rest of the crew had resorted to eating either overcooked meats, or questionably edible plants that Merle had came up with from Gods-knows-where. The world would reset, and Lup would be back in ten months- they just had to pray that either Taako would start cooking again, or the bad food wouldn’t kill them all. 

_ Taako hasn’t been eating at all-  _ Magnus realized with a frown, and took faster steps to the kitchen. Hopefully he had come back from this depression, or at least was making something to eat. Taako has had cycles without Lup before, but she’s never died this early on before- and Lucretia had said something about how this journey would be affecting them- these upcoming years may be the hardest, especially how they were getting closer to the 75 year mark, and there was no end in sight. Honestly, it got a little depressing there and Magnus tuned her out. It was easier to not think about how much longer they would be stuck doing this, and instead think about all of the fun things they have done and-

All Magnus saw when he entered the kitchen was Taako’s back as he exited through the other door. 

“Taak- oh, shit.” Magnus started to call for the elf, but Taako moved even quicker, slipping through the doorway, and disappearing. When Magnus moved to follow Taako, he noticed a slip of paper on the countertop. 

It was in Taako’s scrawling handwriting, with a heart dotting the ‘i’.

_ See you bitches next year _

_ xoxo, Taako _

Magnus stared at the message for a minute, not understanding.  _ See us next year? Why would he call us bitches? Are we bitches? Is Barry a bitch? Barry Bitch Bluejeans? Ha. Wait, fu- _

“Taako!” Magnus yelled, not caring when it came out more as a roar. He didn’t care if the rest of the ship heard, they  _ should  _ hear. Magnus rushed through the door, and followed the hallway down to the deck. It was dark, and this world had the most wonderful night sky, but there was no time to stargaze, no, Magnus scanned the deck around him looking for- “Taako!” 

The darkened silhouette froze, before quietly saying “oh shit”. Gracefully, Taako hauled himself over the edge of the Starblaster. Magnus didn’t hesitate before following, hitting the grass below, landing mere inches next to Taako. 

“Taako what the fuck-” Magnus wheezed, but Taako was already up on his feet, darting into the forest. “What the fuck, man!” he called, but got up regardless, chasing after the surprisingly fast elf. 

The chase went on for many minutes, with Taako throwing furtive glances behind him. Although he kept tripping over tree roots (it would be nice to have darkvision right about now), Magnus managed to keep a steady pace behind Taako. 

“Won’t you just leave me alone?” Taako yelled behind his shoulder, sounding winded. 

“Nope. Sorry. Can’t do that.” Magnus called back cheerfully, nearly stumbling and falling on his face. 

“Fuck off, Burnsides.” It was Taako’s turn to stumble over a tree root, although he wasn’t quite as lucky. He lost his footing and went down. Magnus quickly caught up and feigned tripping, falling down conveniently right next to Taako, making sure to pin him down with his arm. “ _ Budge off- _ ” Taako said, strained, trying to slid under the warrior’s arm with little success. 

“No can do, buddy. I think it is time for a little cuddle and feelings time.” Magnus said, just as cheerful. 

Surprisingly, Taako went limp under his arm. Magnus glanced at him just to make sure he wasn’t dying, but Taako was instead staring up at the night sky, the look on his face unreadable. 

“I’m going to move, Taako. Don’t sprint off again- it was leg day a few days ago and honestly, everything is sore.” That at least garnered a chuckle out of Taako, and he nodded meekly. Frankly startled by the sudden mood shift, Magnus cautiously lifted his arm and slid his back against the tree so he could lean against it. When he reached out for Taako, the elf hesitated for only a moment before crawling into Magnus’ embrace. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Magnus said softly into Taako’s ear. Taako shook his head furiously, but kept his face buried in Magnus’ t-shirt. “Okay. I’ll talk.”

Magnus sighed deeply. “I don’t have sibling. Hell, I don’t have a family. Blood relatives, I mean.” he added hastily. “I sure as hell don’t have a twin. So I can’t relate to what you are feeling. I wish I could, but I doubt that anything would match what is going on in your mind right now.” Magnus started to run his fingers through Taako’s hair, more for his own comfort than Taako’s, but it worked out well when Taako relaxed. “But the funny thing about our situation is that she isn’t gone. She will be back in ten months. That is a long time, I know that, but you have to know- you can do this. You can see this this through Taako, because you aren’t alone.” The stars above shone brightly, but Magnus kept his gaze on Taako. “You have us. You have a family. 

“Maybe this is too much, I know you aren’t always very into the lovey-dovey feelings, but I think you need to hear it. I love you, Taako. You are my brother, and you always will be. It hurts me to know that you are struggling and you didn’t think that you could talk to us about it.” 

“It’s just a cycle-” Taako finally spoke up, his voice quiet. “Just ten months. Then both Lup and I come back, and it will be fine.”

“But-” Magnus’ voice cracked. “But that  _ won’t  _ be just fine, Taako. That’s suicide- you are talking about seriously taking your own life, and while the circumstances are different that doesn’t change-” 

“Fuck that. The circumstances are so different for us, we would have to write a new rulebook. This doesn’t count, none of it counts. We may be stuck in this for forever, Mags. What then?” 

“Then we will be stuck in this forever with  _ each other. _ ” Taako peered up at Magnus.

“Stop crying. You are making me feel bad.” Magnus snorted, but shrugged. 

“Good. Maybe that’ll get you to start listening to me. You are my  _ brother,  _ Taako. My  _ brother,  _ and I don’t give a fuck about blood, or race, you have fought by me, grown with me, fuck, we’ve spent what? Over five decades together? Maybe more? You are my brother, and I’ll never leave you alone.” 

“Like, never?” 

“Never ever. I’ll even follow you to the bathroom just to make sure you are feeling okay.”

“But I won’t be feeling okay, I  _ can’t  _ feel okay when Lup was taken from me so soon, when I might have to live the rest of eternity losing her, and getting her back only to lose her again. There’s no  _ point  _ to this shit, Mags.” Magnus chuckled, holding Taako tighter, and smiling when he didn’t protest. 

“There really isn’t a point to any of this, other than, you know, saving the universe, possibly everything?” Taako jabbed Magnus in the side. “Stop, no, I’m sorry. I know what you are saying. But when you decide to leave a note for us and disappear in the middle of the night, how are we supposed to feel? We aren’t going to be all hunky-dory- happy about it. No, Taako, that’ll fucking hurt.” 

“I- I just don’t know how to  _ be _ without her. I don’t know how to be Taako without Lup, you know? We are a package deal, always have been, and always will be. Until she fucking slips on a rock and falls off of a goddamn cliff because she is a fucking idiot.” 

“You two are so similar,” Magnus mused, only chuckling again when Taako jabbed him in the side again. “But- you’ve done it before. This isn’t the first time that Lup has died, I mean sure, this may be the earliest that she has died, but you haven’t tried to-” He froze. “You haven’t ever- you wouldn’t-” 

Magnus got his answer when he felt Taako curling in on himself, raising his walls back up. “No- Taako-” Taako tried to squirm away, but Magnus caught onto his wrist. “Have you ever?” 

“Only once.” A beat passed until Taako broke eye contact. “Okay, twice. But no one suspected anything, no one noticed, it was  _ fine. _ ”

“Fuck,” Magnus hissed, furious at himself for not noticing anything before. 

“Mags, it’s  _ fine, _ it was always near the end of the cycle and-”

“It’s not fucking fine, Taako! You’ve killed yourself! Twice! And almost a third time!” 

The tears returned to his eyes with full force, and Taako refused to meet his gaze. His grip on Taako’s wrist softened until he was gently rubbing his thumb against the soft skin of Taako’s inner arm. 

“I’m sorry,” Taako mumbled. 

“You- you’re sorry?” Magnus sputtered, incredulous. “No, I’m the one who is sorry- Taako,” His name came out strangled, but that was what it took to get Taako to look at him again. “I’m so sorry. I should have-”

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” Taako said, trying to wave his hand airily, but that look was ruined by the red that was rimming around his eyes. 

Magnus laughed wetly, pulling Taako-  _ his brother _ \- in for another hug. “Let me- let  _ us _ help you. Please. You aren’t alone.” 

Seconds passed, but finally, Taako nodded, his face still crammed in the crook of the warrior’s neck and shoulder.

"Can we go back to the ship now? It's kinda cold, and I'm kinda hungry." Taako snorted, and started to pull away from the embrace, but Magnus held on tight.

“I love you.” Magnus said one last time, for good measure. Taako huffed, which may have been a laugh. 

“Yeah. You aren’t too bad either, bro.” 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are always appreciated and honestly make my whole damn day. i actually started printing out some comments because they make me so happy.  
> threw this together in a couple of hours after putting off doing my homework and being really sad so...... i need a magnus in my life.  
> also a beta reader, that would be nice. because this was not beta read. aaaaaaaa (i havent slept in three days dont do ib classes) 
> 
> i have other taz works that im honestly so much more proud of than this, so please check those out. as said before, i got a big project in the works, and it's nearly done. im v excited for it. 
> 
> hmu on tumblr about taz bc i have no taz friends : dear-galileo


End file.
